I was visiting my brother last week and was astonished to learn my 12 year old nephew's school performs raid drills in the event someone with a gun should enter the school with the aim to shoot and kill.

Is this common practice? Do any of you who attend school do these drills?

Not to make light or devalue events like Columbine, but is this REALLY necessary? As tragic as these things are, they are as common as shark bites. So much has changed since I was a kid.

Thoughts?

b.gluch

24-06-11, 03:49

never experianced one :confused: that would make me worry more then anything

Gladous

24-06-11, 03:50

I've been practicing them since kindergarten, but then again, I used to live in Mississippi... :p

Sir Croft

24-06-11, 03:55

I think it's a fair safety measure. Of course that shouldn't be the only safety measure, they should also improve the security of schools to prevent armed people to enter the place.

scremanie

24-06-11, 03:55

Yes, my primary school and my high school used to practice these sorts of drills at random a few times a year. It was actually pretty fun. :p
The music/alarm would just play, and you'd have to hide under the desk.

EmeraldFields

24-06-11, 04:00

Yeah, we did them all the way back in elementary school.

They were called "code red" drills and the teacher would lock the door to the classroom, turn off the lights, then we would all sit along the wall with the door on it, so whoever was looking into out classroom would think it's empty.

We always thought they were fun to do. :p

:}hello friend

24-06-11, 05:20

We do those all the time. They kept us locked in for 45 minutes. We thought something was horribly wrong, but of course.

Ward Dragon

24-06-11, 05:30

I never heard of these drills before :eek: Granted I graduated from high school around eight years ago, but I just did a semester of student teaching a year and a half ago and still didn't see anything like that. Of course we had regular fire drills though, but not any other type of drill like that. Then again my high school wasn't exactly in the safest of places and there was a police officer in the school at all times anyway, so I guess they figured the police officer could handle it if someone showed up with a gun (that or the students would stab the gunman to death XD).

TRexbait

24-06-11, 05:39

I've done these since elementary school, I always thought it was a nice excuse to not have to work in class. :p

Changeling

24-06-11, 07:34

Never heard of them before. :eek:

MyRaider4Life

24-06-11, 07:59

We have them at my school about twice a year, they're fun. :p

One time it was serious though! Two men unarmed walked into my school and a few teachers noticed and whatnot, so the religious coordinator went out to them and told them that if they had no business at the school then they have to leave. They refused, some more talking happened, and then a fight broke out. It's quite funny to see a 50+ year old man taking on two teenagers and winning. A previous student from the school had happened to br driving past at the time entered the school to help the teacher, he had a cricket bat. Everything was eventually settled with the police, and then after school while everyone was leaving there were swarms of news reporters asking children about what happened. :p

We were in lockdown for about half an hour, but it was seriously an exciting day! LOL

NRO.

24-06-11, 08:01

The only drills we ever had were if there was a fire. Once.

Mainly because my schools principal is cheap as all hell and needs to stay the hell away from the school.

Shark_Blade

24-06-11, 08:20

Never heard of this. But I think it is necessary with how it is nowadays.

Funny I can't seem to remember if there is even any fire drill practice at my school. Nope, there is none really. Sad.

First sex education, now raid drills...I see both as necessary evil; as a result it tainted the young mind as well. I mean I've never learned sex education at a young age before, I learned it myself via books and own research during my pre-pubescent years. :p

And raid drills, it just gives the notion that such a thing can occur and worries the mind. Not to mention it gives the young punks some ideas to wreak havoc at school too.

patriots88888

24-06-11, 08:46

The only drills we ever had were if there was a fire.

Yea, way back when I was in school we had those on a somewhat regular basis. Funny thing was, because they swere so random, some pranksters (students) would set the alarm themselves sometimes just so everyone could get outside and out of the classroom. They were found out though when it happened in the dead of Winter and it was 10F outside... dead giveaway right there. :D

Way, way back in kindergarten and early grade school we used to have the dreaded nuclear bomb drill too where you duck under the desk and cover your head... yea, as if that's going to save you. :rolleyes: :p

First sex education, now raid drills...I see both as necessary evil; as a result it tainted the young mind as well. I mean I've never learned sex education at a young age before, I learned it myself via books and own research during my pre-pubescent years. :p

We started sex ed when we were about 12 years old, so basically when its most common to be starting puberty. I dont see any problem with it.

NRO.

24-06-11, 08:58

Way, way back in kindergarten and early grade school we used to have the dreaded nuclear bomb drill too where you duck under the desk and cover your head... yea, as if that's going to save you. :rolleyes: :p

Well, I bet it's better than hiding in a fridge. :p

pEhouse

24-06-11, 09:08

We also only had fire drills maybe once every other year. But the students usually knew beforehand, so I always guessed in case of a real fire, nothing would work as practiced anyway :D

First sex education, now raid drills...I see both as necessary evil; as a result it tainted the young mind as well. I mean I've never learned sex education at a young age before, I learned it myself via books and own research during my pre-pubescent years. :p

It's pretty foolish to think kids as young as 12 or maybe even younger have no sexual feelings.. so imo it's better to teach them responsibility with it early instead of leaving them on their own.

LNSNHGTDS

24-06-11, 09:15

Raid drills?! Hell no!

Ok, I understand schools organising earthquake or fire drills bur raid drills? Are they even thaaat common to posses a possible threat to students and teachers?

The only actual "dangers" I have experienced in school were:

I. Being chased by firemen and cops and then being rudely "thrown" out of the school courtyard. That day it was the "anniversary" of the death of a student by a cop and no one really wanted to attend any lesson but go to the cemetary and pray instead. So the school's principal thought what a great idea it would be to call firemen and cops to get us out of the school and then back into classroom. It might sound kinda serious but I assure you, being chased by 40+ men who could barely run is really funny, until they eventually catch you...

II. The other "serious danger" I've fased in school was when the toilets "caught fire" . There was smoke everywhere in the building and you could barely breathe. In the end our lovely firemen were called again to "extinguish the fire" . It turned out that the "fire" was just smoke capsules...

As for sex education(mentioned above) I've never had any in school(and I doubt that I'll have any :p ) because all of the teachers propably know that all of us know a thing or two about sex xD .

patriots88888

24-06-11, 09:18

The only actual "dangers" I have experienced in school were:

I.Being chased by firemen and cops and then being rudely "thrown" out of the school courtyard. That day it was the "anniversary" of the death of a student by a cop and no one really wanted to attend any lesson but go to the cemetary and pray instead. So the school's principal thought what a great idea it would be to call firemen and cops to get us out of the school and then back into classroom. It might sound kinda serious but I assure you, being chased by 40+ men who could barely run is really funny, until they eventually catch you...

WTF is up with that? :confused:

ultima espio

24-06-11, 09:23

No...we only had Fire and Earthquake drills. Which is ironic since there are fire extinguishers everywhere and England doesn't really get many earthquakes :p

scoopy_loopy

24-06-11, 09:48

Yup, it was the same as the chemical spill drill. Everyone under the desk, all electric appliances off (gas, too, if you were in the labs or something), windows and doors shut (and locked, in this drill. I can't remember if they were for the chemical ones).

They were kinda fun and it got us out of 10 minutes work. :D

Incidentally, my younger brother (who went to a completely different school than I did), had to do it for real once. A father going through a custody battle and who was apparently unstable turned up at the school with a fire axe with the mind to take his son. He didn't get anywhere, though, police turned up very quickly.

LNSNHGTDS

24-06-11, 09:51

WTF is up with that? :confused:

Well no one took it that seriously(I'm not sure if the cops and the firemen took it seriously as well :p ) and they didn't used weapons or stuff. I can assure you that it was a funny and ridiculous experience :p !

sandygrimm

24-06-11, 09:56

never has, nor high school, nor collage, nor grade! Drills are for West Europeans :p

Ikas90

24-06-11, 09:59

My school has only performed fire drills. Shootings aren't common around here, with guns being illegal and all.

ultima espio

24-06-11, 10:06

Yup, it was the same as the chemical spill drill. Everyone under the desk, all electric appliances off (gas, too, if you were in the labs or something), windows and doors shut (and locked, in this drill. I can't remember if they were for the chemical ones).

They were kinda fun and it got us out of 10 minutes work. :D

Incidentally, my younger brother (who went to a completely different school than I did), had to do it for real once. A father going through a custody battle and who was apparently unstable turned up at the school with a fire axe with the mind to take his son. He didn't get anywhere, though, police turned up very quickly.

When you say, "Take his son", do you mean take him home with him or kill him? :o

Simochka

24-06-11, 10:13

We only have fire drills in my school.
Never heard of raid drills but it sounds pretty scary :p
I don't think we have to worry about things like that here.

scoopy_loopy

24-06-11, 10:19

When you say, "Take his son", do you mean take him home with him or kill him? :o

Take him with him! EEP! The axe was just to fight off anyone that tried to stop him I guess (/broad assumption. :p). But AFAIK, he didn't do any fighting, pretty sure he was just in a mental mess over the situation and made some rash decisions... It must have been really scary for the school kids though!

xXhayleyroxXx

24-06-11, 10:39

Nah, I've never had one :p
Surprisingly, We had an air raid drill. I still don't know whether that was a joke or not...

ultima espio

24-06-11, 10:40

Nah, I've never had one :p
Surprisingly, We had an air raid drill. I still don't know whether that was a joke or not...

Yeah, I had one of those :p

xXhayleyroxXx

24-06-11, 10:47

Yeah, I had one of those :p

LMAO! Maybe its where we live :pi: There's still an air raid shelter in next door's garden 0_o

Super Badnik

24-06-11, 10:50

No, we just have Zombie Apocalypse drills. Just in case. ;)

Dark Lugia 2

24-06-11, 10:51

Nah, guns are illegal here so the odds of a raid happening at a school are very slim. I can understand them being done in countries where guns are legal though.

StefanJ94

24-06-11, 11:09

We've only had one fire drill and that's all, TBH nothing has happened to this horrible school for more than 60 years. :p very much doubt anything will :/

Miharu

24-06-11, 11:16

Nope. Although I am from the UK and live in the UK so we have a lower gun crime rate .

That said...Wait for something to happen with a British school that invovles a gun.

the ancient

24-06-11, 12:28

We have only one every year, just in case of fire.

Cochrane

24-06-11, 12:31

We had the occasional fire drill (maybe one every three years). Never such a thing as raid drills. I would be very, very worried if german schools started to think something like this was necessary.

knightgames

24-06-11, 13:39

This is foreign to me. The climate of fear is so huge that raid drills are necessary? I'm kinda at a loss for words. It surely is a different world. (<----- Say hello to Mr. Obvious)

I guess I'm frustrated and surprised at the climate of fear the country and the world have grown accustomed to. We had fire drills when we were kids. Patriots8888 mentioned the nuclear drills, but those were gone when I started school in the mid 60s (at least where I lived).

This just seemed a bit over the top to me. Maybe I'm putting too much thought into it. Thanks all.

Phone rings... gotta go.

ultima espio

24-06-11, 13:46

LMAO! Maybe its where we live :pi: There's still an air raid shelter in next door's garden 0_o

Those damn Seagulls dropping their bombs:mad:

larafan25

24-06-11, 13:49

We do lock down drills in the event of someone with a weapon coming into the school with the intent of freeing some blood.

Smae thing, different name.

patriots88888

24-06-11, 13:51

Patriots8888 mentioned the nuclear drills, but those were gone when I started school in the mid 60s (at least where I lived).

Yea, we had them here for my first 3 - 4 years of schooling, which was '70 - '73. We were advised of fallout shelters (the symbol representation) and everything. Strange what you'll remember from your early childhood and other things which might seem more meaningful, you can't. :/

xXhayleyroxXx

24-06-11, 13:56

Those damn Seagulls dropping their bombs:mad:

LMAO
xD

lararoxs

24-06-11, 17:08

It's not something I've ever had to do! I guess it's not common practise in the UK.

jackles

24-06-11, 18:16

Good grief no we don't. The school does have cctv and massive gates though. We are lucky if we get a fire drill!

maximum_123

24-06-11, 18:19

We have so many fire drills, not my choice but because over the past year or so there's been a lot of renovation at our school and the dust from the building work gets in the sensors and makes the fire alarms go off. That's always interesting.

Like the time I set off the fire alarm because my chemistry final went badly wrong :pi:

innocentvenus

24-06-11, 18:20

When I was in highschool we did these about once a month. They'd make an announcement and we'd have to either get in the closet (in the art room), or hide along the walls with the lights off and the doors locked.

ultima espio

24-06-11, 18:46

When I was in highschool we did these about once a month. They'd make an announcement and we'd have to either get in the closet (in the art room), or hide along the walls with the lights off and the doors locked.

That sounds more like a really cool game of hide and seek:cln:

Amiyo

24-06-11, 19:37

Is this common practice? Do any of you who attend school do these drills? I've only had fire drills at school, the teacher reminded us students that there could be a situation where we couldn't leave the classroom (someone lurking around in the hallways or something like that), but we never had a drill for that...

I can't say much about the necessity of raid drills, might depend on the neighbourhood etc. It should be made impossible to enter a school with weapons (maybe make an exception with the police?), but I don't have the answers on how to do it.

Aranara

24-06-11, 21:02

I haven't even heard of a drill like this. xD

We only have fire and earthquake drills. Oh, and after the Japanese Earthquake we used to have drills twice a week. O.o

A.JJ.G

25-06-11, 10:21

I've never heard of that type of drill before. In my school, we only do a surprise fire-drill once a year, within the first two months of the school year (and a whole lot more in May/June because all the sixth formers pull the alarms on their last days as a joke ¬_¬). These raid drills sound very stressful though - must be scary (if they don't actually announce it's a drill). I wouldn't like the idea of being put through one, but I suppose drills like that may (not) be necessary depending on the area that you live in.

Flame

25-06-11, 17:18

KDuHr3mvCAU

I actually have a teacher like this, oh dear!

Marianna12

25-06-11, 17:35

We have earthquake drills about twice a year, they're quite fun :p

I, Tomb Raider

25-06-11, 17:40

^ We had an earthquake drill too. :D

Rai

25-06-11, 17:52

My old school had one fire drill in the five years I was there.

Ward Dragon

25-06-11, 18:41

My old school had one fire drill in the five years I was there.

Whoa, that seems pretty rare :eek: Schools around here have fire drills pretty much once a month :p There's a certain number of fire drills they have to have by law, and then they try to make it a bit random when the fire drills are so that the kids won't know whether it's real or a drill (but everybody always knows it's a drill anyway XD).

FloTheMachine

25-06-11, 18:42

Never happened to me. D:

star-dust

25-06-11, 19:11

I was visiting my brother last week and was astonished to learn my 12 year old nephew's school performs raid drills in the event someone with a gun should enter the school with the aim to shoot and kill.

Is this common practice? Do any of you who attend school do these drills?

Not to make light or devalue events like Columbine, but is this REALLY necessary? As tragic as these things are, they are as common as shark bites. So much has changed since I was a kid.

Thoughts?

Yes, at my high school we practiced them. The drill would be in our classroom, a random alarm would go off. The teacher would shut and lock the door, our job as students was to shut the windows, close the blinds, move the desks to the walls (we'd place them infront of the door, pretending that if someone was to open it, there'd be a ton of desks in their way). Then we'd sit in the middle on the class room on the floor. We did these about twice a year. :)

TheCoolJazz

25-06-11, 19:18

Before i answer... Whats a raid drill... :confused:
The only drills our schools do is earthquake and fire...

star-dust

25-06-11, 19:21

Before i answer... Whats a raid drill... :confused:
The only drills our schools do is earthquake and fire...

Raid is when someone comes into your school with a gun.

TheCoolJazz

25-06-11, 19:24

Raid is when someone comes into your school with a gun.

Oh.. well the drill for that kids is to take the chair/table and throw it on him and then when he is down don't forget the teabag! :D

MangelinaJolie

25-06-11, 19:46

I had drills for it throughout my education. Not only that, but we ended up actually putting that to use several times in high school. There was a "man with a machete" that was blown of proportion... in truth a friend of mine was dropped off by her boyfriend that morning and they had an argument where he waved around a knife she had given him as a gift. There were no violent intentions, simply the kind of thing where he wanted her to take it back. Unfortunately I think myself and a few others were the only people to know that is what actually happened... not that it was a smart thing for my friend's boyfriend to do, anyway. I still don't understand why we had to lock our doors and go against the wall with the lights off for something like that. It's a damn machete (well, it wasn't really, but you get my point :p). Throw a desk or something at him and it's dealt with.

There were two more after that but I can't remember what one of them was about. The one I do remember, however, was because a girl was reported to have a gun in her locker. They had to search for it and deal with the situation, which turned out to be a false alarm and the person who called it in was a student trying to stir up trouble.

I thought it was fun, to be honest. Got out of doing classwork, got to relax and listen to music and talk with friends. :vlol: Although my class the second time was obnoxiously loud and had a girl dancing on a table while tormenting our substitute teacher. We would have surely been shot had there been a gunman.

t-raider26

25-06-11, 20:30

My school does them. Except we call them lockdowns. The drills came in handy a few years ago...

Whoa, that seems pretty rare :eek: Schools around here have fire drills pretty much once a month :p There's a certain number of fire drills they have to have by law, and then they try to make it a bit random when the fire drills are so that the kids won't know whether it's real or a drill (but everybody always knows it's a drill anyway XD).

I am talking about a loong time ago, mind. I'm guessing the school is a bit better now at fire safety now. It was a bit rubbish when I was there.

The Great Chi

26-06-11, 00:33

****************

GeekOfComedy

26-06-11, 01:15

Raid drills:confused: We only get fire drills

star-dust

26-06-11, 01:20

My school does them. Except we call them lockdowns. The drills came in handy a few years ago...

Speaking of drills, I forgot to mention that in Nebraska we also have tornado drills! :D

We have to pack all of the kids into either interior rooms or hallways with no windows and we duck and cover until the drill's done. :p

Although we have done tornado drills for real though, once in 1st grade and another in 7th grade. The one in first grade we had to duck and cover for over an hour until the tornado warning had expired.

Apathetic

26-06-11, 05:56

Speaking of drills, I forgot to mention that in Nebraska we also have tornado drills! :D

We have to pack all of the kids into either interior rooms or hallways with no windows and we duck and cover until the drill's done. :p

Although we have done tornado drills for real though, once in 1st grade and another in 7th grade. The one in first grade we had to duck and cover for over an hour until the tornado warning had expired.

I'm pretty sure every school in America does those..

EmeraldFields

26-06-11, 05:57

I'm pretty sure every school in America does those..

Really? :p

I had a friend from Washington, the state, who said that she'd had never done them before until she moved to the Midwest. :D

Apathetic

26-06-11, 05:59

Yeah, and I do live in the midwest. :l I wouldn't doubt schools on the west coast practice earth quake drills, as we here do not.

EmeraldFields

26-06-11, 06:01

Yeah, and I do live in the midwest. :l I wouldn't doubt schools on the west coast practice earth quake drills, as we here do not.

Yeah. I would hate to live in a place where earthquakes happen. Because you can't really "hide" from them. :/

just*raidin*tomb

26-06-11, 06:03

My school had drills like this but they were called lockdowns. We also have tornado and fire drills. The tornado drill is annoying as hell.

Apathetic

26-06-11, 06:06

^ Yeah, as if in the midst of a tornado I'm just gonna silently walk into the hallway and sit down in the open and use my hands to cover my face while I die? Hell no. Deuces. I would book out of there.

just*raidin*tomb

26-06-11, 06:18

^ Pretty much yeah. And they'd put us in a hallway with doors to the outside. We'd be sucked out. Silly really.